t-break: Tech @ Its Fastest » Notebooks

MSI GT70 Gaming Laptop Review

Taimoor Hafeez — Mon, 21 May 2012 10:49:52 +0000

The MSI GT780R that was reviewed two months back was pretty impressive, but now that both Intel and Nvidia have released their Ivy Bridge processors and GTX 600M series graphics cards, it was time for a refresh.

The new GT70, for all intents and purposes, is the same as the GT780R before it, i.e. a big desktop replacement high-end laptop meant for gaming. It’s big, it’s bulky, it looks scary, but that’s what gaming laptops are.

Packing the latest lntel Ivy Bridge Core i7-3610QM @ 2.3GHz (TurboBoosting up to 3.3GHz), the Nvidia GTX 670M (with 3GB GDDR5 RAM), 16GB DDR3 RAM and 2x 64GB SSD (in RAID 0) and a 500GB HDD (@ 7,200RPM). The gold plated audio ports with built-in amplifier, 3x USB 3.0 ports and the high-end Killer E2200 LAN card ensures the MSI GT70 has bleeding edge tech as far as laptops are concerned.

Usage

On the surface the GT70 is the exact replica of the GT780R, having just some internal components changed. You have the same non-glossy 17.3-inch screen supporting a crisp resolution of 1920×1080. The mirror finish camera resides on top, along with the mic.

Down below the Steelseries multi-color backlit keyboard looks as mesmerizing as ever. The keys are easy to use and feel nice to touch, however, I noticed that due to the limited spacing between the keys it’s very easy to push another key accidentally.

On top of the keyboard are the Dynaudio speakers, their subwoofer tucked away underneath. The 2.1 speakers certainly make an impact, and indeed the bass reproduction is pretty impressive for the size of these speakers. While this setup is very good for songs and games, for movies and competitive gaming I would suggest using headphones.

The touchpad mouse is average at best, but a non-issue really, as you’re most likely to use a proper gaming mouse instead of the built-in touchpad.

Temperature & Noise

According to HWMonitor, the internal temperature of the GT70 did reach as high as 75°C. However, most of this heat is dissipated by the large fan at the bottom right. As long as there’s good ground clearance, or the GT70 is kept on a clean flat surface, temperatures actually felt through the palm rest area will not go higher than ‘mildly warm to touch’.

Now to keep such powerful hardware cool, especially during games, the fan does make a fair bit of noise. It doesn’t get too irritating because the built-in Dynaudio speakers do a good job of drowning out the whining noise. However if you’re watching a Bluray or DVD, the drive is going to make some very annoying sounds, so better use headphones.

HP launches ENVY 14 Spectre notebook

Nick Rego — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 08:02:39 +0000

HP today announced the launch of its ENVY 14 Spectre notebook, which features some rather impressive use of glass. Rather than encasing the laptop in metal or plastic, HP have opted to use a scratch-resistant glass on the lid, display, and palmrest of the laptop, giving it a distinctive look and style.

“Sleek, midnight black glass on the outside and stark contrast silver on the inside make Spectre extraordinary, defying conventional notebook design,” said Louis Perrin, director, consumer products, Personal Systems Group, HP EMEA. “We chose the name for our first ENVY Ultrabook to evoke mystery and to satisfy those who expect the unexpected.”

Featuring a full backlit keyboard, Beats Audio, a 128GB SSD and the latest Intel processors, the ENVY 14 Spectre is sure to turn heads wherever you go. It is now available at select retailers at a price of AED 5,599.

Nvidia GeForce GT640M Mobile GPU Review

Taimoor Hafeez — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:35:33 +0000

Mobile Graphics Cards

When it comes to mobile graphics cards, one cannot, and should not, accept desktop level performance. Even the highest-end mobile graphics card can barely touch mid-range desktop cards. So when Nvidia, or even AMD for that matter, come out with a new iteration of their mobile GPUs, the PC enthusiast community is a bit skeptical as to how “powerful” these cards can really be.

But let’s be honest, if you’re planning to spend under $1000 (AED 3,700) on a notebook, then you shouldn’t exactly expect anything mind-blowing. In fact, you should temper your expectations to an incredible low to be amazed by a mobile GPU’s performance. Gaming at 1080p or above resolutions with all effects on high and getting at least 60 fps on a notebook is like expecting a Honda Civic to go up against a Porsche Panamera. So huge is the difference between notebook and desktop gaming.

Coming back to more humble grounds, when looking at notebook gaming, anything at medium to high settings with 30+ fps is a blessing if your laptop doesn’t cost over $1k. In fact, even up till last year this has been pretty much impossible on new games. Everyone knows that to have a “gaming laptop” means a big bulky 4kg monstrosity that makes too much noise and gets too hot to be able to use on laps. And let’s not even get into the fact that these machines cost well in excess of $1,500 (AED 5,800).

But what if I told you, that now you can have a laptop for $800 (AED 3,100) that is not only slim, as close as it can get to ultrabooks with an integrated optical drive, but also has a discrete graphics card that can play the latest DX11 games? And I’m not just talking about simply running these games at low settings to be able to run them for the heck of it, but running them well enough to have settings turn on to high and get well above 30 fps and much more. Enter the Nvidia GeForce GT640M.

Kepler Mobile

The GeForce GT640M is based on the new 28nm Kepler architecture, that promises to outdo its predecessor by a huge margin, while costing the same. The Kepler architecture by merit provides a cooler and more power-efficient chip than the Fermi based GT540M (and any other 500M series GPUs). And while the core clock and memory speeds haven’t seen much of a bump, the CUDA cores on the GT640M come to 384 units. That’s literally 4 times as much as 96 CUDA cores on the GT540M! However, to keep the costs down, Nvidia continues using GDDR3 memory and bus bandwidth of 128-bit.

The review unit we received was the Acer Timeline Ultra M3 with an Intel Core i5-2467M (@ 1.6GHz), 4GB DDR3 RAM, 20GB SSD + 500GB HDD, and the GeForce GT 640M powered a 15-inch screen with a resolution of 1366×768.

Now one thing to keep in mind is that this time all the GeForce 600M line GPUs will have Nvidia Optimus, so expect great battery life across the board in every laptop carrying these cards. Our own Acer Timeline Ultra M3 was rated at an 8 hour battery life. I personally clocked in just less than 6 hours of regular usage (browsing and HD YouTube videos and listening to MP3s) after having played Skyrim for about 40 minutes.

Seagate Momentus XT 750GB Review

Taimoor Hafeez — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:29:53 +0000

The Seagate Momentus XT hybrid hard drives are one of those special drives that many people desire, but haven’t had much experience with. They’re like VelociRaptors, just the name sounds cool enough to want one. But it’s the promise of high performance for relatively low cost that attracts everyone. In the case of the Momentus XT, the low costs are relative to Solid State Drives, which are still prohibitively expensive for many.

So today I’ll be looking at the second generation Momentus XT hybrid drive that promises more capacity, more performance and better reliability than the first generation drives. Unfortunately this performance and capacity increase also comes at a cost of $100 (AED 370) extra.

As you can see, the NAND Flash that’s used to cache frequently used data has doubled to 8GB from the original Momentus XT. The obvious benefit here is that larger capacity for cache means that more of your programs will be running at maximum capacity (of near SSD speeds) most of the time.

Despite the size increase, though, it seems that the Momentus XT still won’t be able to achieve its maximum potential. The reason is that Seagate doesn’t allow any data to be written on the 8GB NAND while in use; only read. Essentially that means that read heavy applications, such as iTunes or any video game will see a lot of benefit as data is mostly read. For those who’ll be working on heavy editing applications, such as Photoshop or Sony Vegas, will still be bound by the write speeds of a 7200rpm drive, albeit at SATA III speeds.

I guess if both real-time read and write access was given to the NAND Flash, perhaps a bigger size would be needed. So these limitations seem more in line with keeping the costs down, rather than technical issues. That said, Seagate has mentioned that they will be releasing a firmware upgrade for these 2^nd generation Momentus XT drives that will, in fact, allow data to be written to the 8GB NAND. So far we haven’t had anything, so this review looks at performance you’ll be getting from units straight of the packaging.

One of the key features of the Momentus XT is the ‘Adaptive Memory Technology’ that’s basically a self-learning algorithm that notice your most used programs and stores their data on the cache. So every time you run those programs again, they will be loaded as quickly as an SSD since the data is being read directly from the 8GB NAND Flash.

Devices to expect from Apple in 2012

Abbas Jaffar Ali — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 09:18:07 +0000

2012 has the potential to become one of the best years for Apple fans. With the amount of products refreshes as well as one possible new device, there are plenty of reason for iFans to work hard and save up some cash for these devices this year:

iPad 3

Apple usually refreshes the iPad in the first quarter of the year and hopefully, this year should be no different. From what the rumor-mill is suggesting, the new iPad should have a retina display giving it the same gorgeous screen that the iPhone 4 sports. To power that high of a resolution, you also need some serious hardware so a quad-core equipped iPad doesn’t sound too out of place. Cameras should also be hopefully updated considering the number of people that actually take pictures from their iPad and how bad they currently are. Other than these visible changes, Apple will probably add Bluetooth 4.0 for low power connectivity with other expected devices.

MacBook Air & MacBook Pro

Intel is launching their Ivy bridge CPU in April so it’s a given that Apple will update their notebooks. However, the question is whether we will see a 15″ version of the Air or the MacBook Pro line slimmed down. With this new generation of CPUs, the graphics horsepower would have improved enough for the Air to start competing with the Pro so Apple will need to decide which direction to take. Remember, Steve Jobs stated that the Air is the future design direction for Apple laptops and the army of wanna-bes in the form of Ultrabooks certainly suggests that Apple will make its move.

iOS 6

Towards the summer, Apple will hold it’s annual event detailing the future of their new mobile OS. I honestly don’t know what they will show but with iOS breaking away the requirement for a computer to activate it, my guess is that Apple will try and make their new devices more computer-like. At the top of my wish list sits an accessible file system that could hopefully allow us to add attachments of any kind to email without jail breaking the device. Also, the UI of iOS is getting a bit old and now that Google has hired the WebOS design guru Matias Duarte, it might be time for Apple to show what they have been working on.

iPhone 5

Wth no change in the form factor, The iPhone 4S didn’t create much of a stir on the Internet on the design front. However, this year should be different and Apple is expected to change the design of the iPhone. Will it sport a bigger screen or do away with the home button is anybody’s guess, but do expect to see a new iPhone that also looks new this time around.

iTV

If introduced, the iTV will be the product that the tech industry will talk most about this year. My guess is that Apple will heavily involve Siri- you will probaly be able to tell your iTV to bring up an episode of Lost when Locke opens the hatch instead of remembering episode number. Or telling it to get details of the comedian/politician that is on your screen at that time. There is plenty of potential with what Apple can possibly do with iTV.

New iPods

Last and certainly not the least, we should be expecting new iPods especially since we didn’t see any new models in 2011. While the iPod touch will probably be something between an iPhone 4s and iPhone 5, what I am really interested in is the new Nano. Using the low powered Bluetooth 4.0 the Nano could easily beome the Siri enabled device on your wrist that communicates with your iPhone or iPad and get things done. It could become the window to your other, more powerful iDevice.

So there you have it- a list of potential devices that Apple might be releasing this year. What do you think? Is there one that you don’t agree with or one that you think I might have missed out on?

Sony VAIO Z-Series Laptop Review

Taimoor Hafeez — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 10:42:21 +0000

The VAIO Z-series is one of those laptops that impresses on first sight, and continues to hold you attention all the way to the end. Looking extremely slick, the Z-series laptops are a perfect combination of lightweight business use for daily activity, as well as a powerhouse with the additional docking station for some extra oomph. In other words, perfect for the road warrior and those looking for a powerful laptop as a desktop replacement.

From the outside, the Z-series laptop looks very edgy, literally. The 13 inch laptop measures a mere 0.66” high and 8.27” long. Including the battery, it weighs under 1.2kgs. The reason for all this sleekness is the use of brushed aluminum and carbon fiber to form the chassis of the Z-series.

The brilliance, of course, comes in the form of all the high0end hardware packed in this beautifully thin body. That small 13” screens comes alive with an amazing 1920×1080 resolution, making it one of the sharpest LED panels in the world. The anti-glare coating is further improvement as outdoors usage is pretty impressive. This is all very impressive, but when I set the laptop away from me at the standard distance of 60cm, I had to start squinting to look at the text. Sure, it was ultra-fine, but still a bit too small for my liking.

The Intel Core i7-2640M processor runs at 2.8GHz, Turbo Boosting up to 3.5GHz. Add to this 8GB DDR3-1333MHz memory (in 4GBx2 slots) and 256GB SSD (in 2x128GB with RAID 0) and you have an insanely fast machine with some of the highest components available in the mobile market. While the standard body does well with the Intel HD 3000 graphics, the Power Media Dock also has an AMD Radeon HD 6650M graphics card with its own 1GB of memory. More on that later, though; my point here is to show that in making a slim body Sony hasn’t compromised with mainstream components, but has gone with the best.

Sadly the keyboard takes a little getting used to. What I specifically mean is that in darkness the backlights turn off automatically after 60 seconds. You can change this value from 10 seconds to 60 maximum, after which they will turn off automatically. If you use the mousepad, they will remain off; only when you touch a key will the backlights turn on again.

Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook Review

Abbas Jaffar Ali — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 08:32:29 +0000

The Ultrabook is the latest initiative from Intel and power players in the PC industry to bring a MacBook Air like of machine to the PC World- something that is extremely thin and light, yet quick enough to be used as a daily machine. One of the launch partners for the Ultrabook is Acer. In fact, in the UAE, Acer was the first company to get the Ultrabook out the door and they managed to sell every single unit they had during GITEX earlier this year.

Acer was kind enough to send an Aspire S3 to me and that is precisely what I am writing this review on. My primary machine is an 11” MacBook Air that I have been using for a good six months so I should hopefully be able to offer a fair comparison. Lets find out how Acer has done with their Ultrabook that came packaged in a slim green and white box with a small sized charger, a quickstart guide and warranty information.

Looks-wise, the Acer S3 is definitely striking. Measuring 13mm to 18mm and weighing just 1.35kgs, the Aspire S3 will definitely make heads turn. The brushed Aluminum lid certainly gives it a premium feel and finish. The rest of the laptop is made up of magnesium alloy which is a big step-up from the plastic chassis that we see many laptops equipped with. However, it is not a Unibody design that is constructed from a single slab of metal like the MacBook Air which tends to give the machine better protection as well as a better finish.

GITEX ’11: Hands-On MSI GT 780 Laptop

Taimoor Hafeez — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 13:56:24 +0000

MSI’s booth this year was full of different laptops and all-in-one desktops and motherboards and graphics cards. Now we’ve covered and reviewed a lot of their products in the past, including various motherboards and graphics cards, but what really struck our fancy was their flagship gaming laptop.

MSI motherboards on display at GITEX '11

The GT 780 is a huge, but equally powerful laptop, and quite intimidating in person. The SteelSeries keyboard complimented with a full color palette, plus the GTX 560M GPU with 1.5GB ram and the 120GB SSD & 720GB HDD combo had us salivating.

Acer launches Aspire S3 Ultrabook

Taimoor Hafeez — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 10:42:47 +0000

Acer announced the launch of their new Ultrabook laptops, a new breed of ultra-portable laptops that Intel hopes will cover the gap between regular laptops and tablets, in a market that doesn’t seem to have place for netbooks.

The Aspire S3 marks the launch of the first ultrabook in this region, with some truly mouthwatering specs and features. The 13.3″ Aspire S3 measures 1.3cm thin and weighs a mere 1.4kgs. It’ll feature a Sandy Bridge Core i3, i5 or i7 CPU, and if coupled with the optional 240GB SSD, instead of the 320GB or 500GB HDD, you can get 7 hours of battery life. Priced at AED 3,699, the Aspire S3 will be shipping out from next month onwards in the region.

Full Press Release

Acer Debuts First Ultrabook: Aspire S3

Resumes in a quick 1.5 seconds and delivers 50-day battery life via Acer Green Instant On; features large hard drive capacity; and connects to the Internet in 2.5 seconds

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Acer announces its first Ultrabook. The Acer Aspire S3 integrates the best features of notebook and mobile devices, offering users powerful performance for digital creation, in addition to ultra-fast responsiveness and interaction for content consumption, enhancing the freedom and overall computing experiences of users on the go.

Innovative Acer Green Instant On technology provides instant-resume functionality and ensures battery longevity, while Acer Instant Connect delivers faster Internet access. The Aspire S3 is encased in a thin, light metal design that’s sturdy and aerodynamic. It will be available in select regions from September.

Campbell Kan, president of Personal Computer Global Operations, Acer Inc., said, “The Aspire S3 is truly designed to meet notebook users’ needs, combining essential features of the smartphone and tablet PC, such as fast startup and Internet connectivity, with long battery life. Matched with its slim form, the Aspire S3 will provide a fresh experience and set a major milestone in the history of Acer’s notebook development.”

Ultra-long unplugged freedom via instant on and connect

Modern notebook users want to maximize their time and effort wherever they go. The Aspire S3 helps them make the most of their time via two new innovations: Acer Green Instant On, which delivers ultra-fast responsiveness, energy efficiency and enhanced power management; and Acer Instant Connect, which provides access to the Internet in just 2.5 seconds[1]^{, [2]} — four times faster than conventional connections — so users can go faster for better productivity and infotainment enjoyment. There’s no compromise.

Acer Green Instant On provides two sleep modes from which the Aspire S3 responds with surprising speed: From Sleep the Aspire S3 will resume in a mere 1.5 seconds,² and from Deep Sleep it resumes in 6 seconds.² With these energy-conscious innovations, the Aspire S3′s battery life lasts up to 50 days[3]^{, [4]} — even longer than regular mobile phone batteries!

Ultra-slim in an aerodynamic metal design

For easy-to-carry convenience, the Aspire S3 measures 1.3 cm thin and weighs less than 1.4 kg (3 lbs.).[5] It’s also equipped with a full-size Acer FineTip chiclet keyboard, designed for comfortable use and maximum productivity. All-day usability is assured by a super-lightweight, high-density battery that delivers up to 7 hours[6] of juice. The aerodynamic design of the Aspire S3 features a strong and lightweight aluminum/magnesium alloy chassis, and a lid with a fingerprint-free metal finish that feels as smooth as silk.

The 13.3″ ultra-thin HD LED display adopts an open cell design to conserve materials by using the lid and bezel to form an aluminum frame for the screen. This creates a super-slim yet protective profile and reduces the energy required during manufacture as compared to conventional panel designs.

Innovative airflow design enhances comfort

The Aspire S3 features a vent-free bottom so the notebook rests comfortably on the user’s lap. Warm components are smartly placed away from the palmrest and touchpad area, so users won’t feel any heat discomfort. Further innovation is offered via a new airflow design that dissipates warm air from the rear of the notebook, preventing air from blowing towards the user’s hands. Finally, the fan motor is optimized to enhance efficiency and lower power consumption to help increase system battery life.

Uncompromising performance for content creation and enjoyment

The Aspire S3 features the latest 2^nd generation Intel^® Core^™ i3/i5/i7 processors for full computing and digital creation capability, and a choice of 240 GB SSD or 320/500 GB HDD with embedded SSD[7] for ultra-fast access and ample media and data storage. Packing professionally-tuned Dolby^® Home Theater^® v4, the Aspire S3 delivers vibrant, cinema-style surround sound and enhanced dialogue quality for optimum listening experiences. Standard HDMI^® output is also included for connecting the Aspire S3 to popular HD peripheral devices for high-def digital/video playback and extension. Furthermore, users can quickly and easily share data or download photos from their digital cameras using the 2-in-1 card reader that supports SD^™ Cards and MultiMediaCard^™.

On-the-go users can keep in touch with friends and colleagues with high-clarity video conferences thanks to the integrated Acer Crystal Eye 1.3 megapixel camera and microphone — with superior Wi-Fi^® connections guaranteed by Acer InviLink^™ Nplify^™ 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi CERTIFIED^™ technology.[8] Wireless convenience is enhanced by the addition of latest-generation Bluetooth^® 4.0+HSR technology with lower power consumption.

“We are very happy to see the formal launch of the Acer Aspire S3, Acer’s first Ultrabook, and to be one of the leading time-to-market partners to place an Ultrabook in the market. The features of the Aspire S3, powered by 2^nd generation Intel^® Core^™ processors — including instant on, instant connect, long battery life, and its elegant slim and light design — will satisfy many users’ desire for a free and easy life on the go,” said Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager of the Intel PC Client Group.

“As the only Ultrabook with an HDD option, the Aspire S3 offers the computing power and storage needs of a notebook, along with the mobile communication advantages of the smartphone and tablet PC,” added Kan. “It’s a major breakthrough in notebook design and will surely fortify our notebook competitiveness in the ICT market.”

Priced at AED 3699, the Aspire S3 will start to roll out in the regions in October, and is expected to become Acer’s star product during the fourth quarter.

[1] With previously used access points.

[2] Time based on testing with the following applications open: Internet Explorer^® 9 (Internet search and email web pages), PowerPoint^® viewer (file size 68 MB) and Excel^® (file size 108 MB) of Microsoft^® Office^® 2010 Starter, and logged in to Windows Live^® Messenger 2011.

[3] The notebook enters Deep Sleep after an inactive period set by the user. In this mode, battery life lasts up to 50 days.

[4] The listed battery life is based on MobileMark 2007^® productivity mode testing with wireless on. Details of MobileMark2007^® testing are available at www.bapco.com. Battery life rating is for comparison purposes only. Actual battery life varies by model, configuration, applications, power management settings, operating conditions, and utilized features. A battery’s maximum capacity decreases with time and use.

^{^[5]} Depending on configuration.

^{^[6]} 7-hour battery life is available on models fitted with an SSD for storage.

[7] The SSD is integrated with the mainboard and dedicated to Acer Green Instant On. It is not visible in file explorers.

^{^[8]} Actual throughput may vary depending on network conditions and environmental factors such as network traffic or overhead, building construction, and access point settings.

Thermaltake introduces cooler for gaming laptops

Taimoor Hafeez — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 08:27:51 +0000

Thermaltake introduced a new laptop cooler designed specifically for gamers who want to keep their bulky machines cool. The new Thermaltake Massive23 GT is designed for laptops sized 10″ to 17″. There’s a huge 200mm fan with glowing red LEDs, running between 500 to 800 RPM with a speed control knob.

At highest speed the fan is rated to have a rather low noise of 24 dBA with an airflow of 63.2 CFM. Apart from the fan control knob, there’s a also a switch to turn off the red LEDs if you desire, as well as one mini-USB and two USB 2.0 ports. All of this weighs a relatively minor 907g.

The Massive23 GT has five adjustable height angles with anti-slip rubber design. The entire surface area is covered in black mesh grill, behind which the 200mm fan and LEDs are placed. Pricing isn’t announced yet, but the cooler should be available by next month.